One could argue we are in the midst of a televised poker renaissance, with the prevalence of poker-related shows like “2 Months, $2 Million,” “Face the Ace,” “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge,” the recently announced “Shuffle Up and Deal,” and the new Fox Sports poker news show “Poker 2Nite,” which is set to premiere this evening. While these new shows are drawing attention to the poker world, a recently published list by the Onion’s AV Club is paying homage to a contemporary classic, “I Bet You.”
The AV Club, a publication and website from the makers of the satirical newspaper “The Onion,” has been publishing a series of lists to honor the best pop culture offerings of the decade and gave a shout out to both “I Bet You” and televised poker in general in its “Best Reality Series/Competitions” list. “I Bet You” just made the cut, coming in at #5 behind shows like “Survivor” and “Top Chef.”
“I Bet You” was clearly the show on the list with the least mainstream popularity, but the AV Club gave props to the program, hosted by friends and professional poker players Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari. The site referred to the program as “one of the damndest, most delightful reality series of all time.”
The show, which ran on the MOJO HD cable network from 2007 to 2008, featured the two men traveling around the country placing wagers on everything from dune buggy racing to modeling to ballet dancing to which of the two had the more potent sperm count. Over the course of two seasons and 24 episodes, the memorable duo won over poker and non-poker fans alike over with their pro betting shenanigans, but the show ended production when MOJO HD stopped making original programming in December of 2008. The AV Club article reported that supposedly a third season of the show has already been filmed and the site implored a cable network to pick up the program so the world could see more of the short-lived series.
The AV Club list also coupled televised poker in general with “I Bet You” as some of the best reality programming of the last decade. As it explained, the beauty of televised poker was that it “made household names out of dozens of previously obscure weirdoes, degenerates, and social misfits.” The site argued that the poker boom resulted in an oversaturation of poker programming, but the mention in the article was, on the whole, rather positive.
More than 500 readers commented on the article, disagreeing with components of the list, and, while the bulk of complaints were centered on omissions of shows like “Man vs. Food,” “Mythbusters,” “Iron Chef,” and “Deadliest Catch,” a few people disagreed with the inclusion of televised poker, claiming it was annoying and boring to watch.
A post on the official MySpace page of “I Bet You” written in May of 2008 confirmed that plans for Season 3 were in the works, but the site has not been updated in some time, so the future of the quirky, but popular, prop betting show remains up in the air.
